Mitigation of High Voltage Breakdown of the Beam Screen of a CERN SPS Injection Kicker Magnet

The SPS injection kicker magnets (MKP) were developed in the 1970’s, before beam induced power deposition was considered an issue. These magnets are very lossy from a beam impedance perspective: this is expected to be an issue during SPS operation with the higher intensity beams needed for HL-LHC. A design, with serigraphy applied to an alumina carrier, has been developed to significantly reduce the broadband beam coupling impedance and hence mitigate the heating issues. During high voltage pulse testing there were electrical discharges associated with the serigraphy. Detailed mathematical models have been developed to aid in understanding the transiently induced voltages and to reduce the magnitude and duration of electric field. In this paper, we discuss the solutions implemented to mitigate the electrical discharges while maintaining an adequately low beam-coupling impedance. In addition, the results of high voltage tests are reported. The alumina substrate has a high secondary electron yield and thus electron-cloud could be an issue, with SPS beam, if mitigating measures were not taken: this paper also discusses the measures implemented.